8th December 2016. Benidorm, Spain.

Okay, during our stay in Spain we’ve had melodious dogs, braying donkeys and croaky cockerels I most certainly was NOT expecting to hear SEALIONS barking last night, what IS going on!  We both heard them so I’m not imagining things.

This morning at the crack of dawn we said goodbye to Steve and Jane and I mentioned the sea lions, they hadn’t heard them but Steve remembered that there’s a Sea Life Centre somewhere in the woodland behind us!  Aaah, that explains the noises then.  Phew, we’re not going mad after all!

We were very sad to see them leave, we’ve had such a great time with them.

Darren and I planned to walk up to El Castell today for lunch.  I’d contemplated cycling there but we decided as it was a lovely sunny day we’d walk into town.  I hadn’t realised how much walking and talking we’d been doing with Jane and Steve (although looking at Darren’s photos of Jane and I gas bagging perhaps I should have guessed!) the talking had obviously distracted us from the length of time it took to walk to El Castell, it took us AGES to get there.  I’d been meaning to have a paddle every time we’d been to the beach so this time I made sure I was wearing shorts and we went down to the water.  It was SO clear and such a beautiful colour, it was also a little chilly (I take my hat off to the brave souls swimming in it) but it felt refreshing as the waves washed over my feet.  We didn’t stay on the beach very long because my stomach kept reminding me that lunch was calling.

I can’t say that water, sand and flip flops are a good combination, I’d forgotten to bring a towel as usual and no matter how much I rubbed my feet the sand was determined to stay with me, on the plus side my feet were incredibly smooth when it did eventually did fall off. A paddle and exfoliation included, what a bargain.

We walked up the hill to the restaurant, it was one of the few times on this trip that we’d arrived at a restaurant at lunchtime so we were concerned it may be full however we did find a table with wonderful views and entertainment thrown in.  A blokey had set up an amp and microphone on a stand on the plaza  and was playing a variety of songs including a song by The Police and one by Dire Straits, they were very good but then he ruined his whole performance by playing the Birdie Song, lol!

After lunch we wandered through the rambling streets of the Old Town then cut back in to walk along the promenade right to the far end so we could look over the bay to where we’d been having lunch.

We had intended going to the Flamenco Festival but we were feeling very tired so we knew it was highly unlikely that we’d want to walk back into town for the start of the Festival at 10 p.m.  We were teased by the sounds and flashes of what sounded like a huge firework display at 10 p.m. (there were trees blocking the sky so even though we were parked up the top of a hill we couldn’t see them.  Damnation!) so that may have been the start of the Festival.